The present invention relates generally to railroad locomotives and more particularly to the operator cab structure of a locomotive.
It is well known that railroads are an economical and energy efficient form of transportation, particularly for hauling extremely heavy or bulky freight over long distances. A train may typically include a string of interconnected rail cars carrying freight or passengers propelled by one or more locomotives connected at the front and/or rear of the string of cars, and often a caboose connected at the end of the train. A train engineer and others ride in an operator cab portion of the locomotive to control the operation of the train.
A typical locomotive includes a platform supporting a power plant equipment compartment housing an engine and electrical generator, an auxiliary equipment compartment housing electrical control systems, and an operator cab. The platform is supported on a plurality of multi-axle trucks containing electric motors for propelling the locomotive along the rails. The operator cab is normally positioned at the front of the locomotive to afford the engineer the best possible view of the oncoming rails. The operator cab has an outer sheet material defining the shape of the cab including opposed sides which extend beyond the sides of the adjacent equipment compartments of the locomotive, thereby defining an operator cab rear panel. Window openings formed in the outer sheet material afford the engineer and others in the operator cab views toward the front, sides and rear of the locomotive.
There is an increasing interest in improving the safety of the passengers of trains, especially the occupants of the locomotive. The leading position of the operator cab exposes the engineer and others in the operator cab to danger when the locomotive strikes any object in its path. As early as 1989 the American Association of Railroads published specifications for the structural hardening of the front wall of locomotives to improve the protection afforded to its occupants. Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations includes the current Federal Railroad Administration requirements for passenger equipment safety, including specific strength requirements for the forward end structures of power car cabs (see Section 238.409).
All current regulations for locomotive cab safety are directed at mitigating the result of a forward direction collision, i.e. the short hood lead direction of travel. However, it is possible to operate a locomotive in a reverse direction with the long hood (equipment compartments) leading. It is expected that occupants of the locomotive are much safer during this mode of operation because the structure and weight of the power plant equipment and auxiliary equipment compartments are travelling forward of the operator cabin, thereby providing a significant buffer and reducing the amount of energy that must be absorbed by the operator compartment.
However, the inventors have realized that existing regulations do not address the protection of locomotive passengers against the penetration of the operator cab by objects that may strike the operator cab rear panel during long hood lead operation of the locomotive. Such objects may include, for example, a section of wood cribbing extending from a passing train on an adjacent track. Such objects may pass untouched by the power plant and auxiliary equipment compartments of the locomotive and collide directly into the operator cab rear panel, thereby penetrating either the rear window or the outer sheet material.
Thus there is a particular need for improved protection for the passengers of a locomotive against collisions from a rearward direction, and in particular, from collisions with objects that may pass untouched by the equipment compartments to strike directly into the operator cab rear panel.
Accordingly, a rail vehicle is described as including a platform; trucks connected to the platform for supporting and propelling the platform on rails; an equipment compartment attached to the platform and having opposed sides; an operator cab attached to the platform proximate the equipment compartment and having opposed sides, the sides of the operator cab extending beyond the sides of the equipment compartment to define an operator cab rear panel on each of opposed sides of the rail vehicle; each operator cab rear panel further comprising a protective member connected to the platform and adapted to withstand a predetermined impact load imposed by an object moving along the respective side of the power unit compartment toward the operator cab rear panel. In order to optimize the aesthetic appeal of such a design, the protective member may be disposed inside the outer sheet material at a rear corner of the operator cab To optimize the load carrying capability of such a protective member, a vertical member disposed at a rear corner of the operator cab may be connected with a horizontal member extending along the side of the operator cab, and with a cross member connected between the vertical and horizontal members around a side window of the operator cab.